A Turkish teenager has fallen in love with Teesside after spending nearly a year here on a cultural exchange.

Olgu Alduran has developed a love of curry, Yorkshire puddings and the Boro while staying with the Hartley family in Marton, Middlesbrough.

The 17-year-old arrived in the UK in September as part of the Association of Friendly Societies' intercultural exchange programme.

AFS has run the programme since 1947, and is currently looking for more host families.

Olgu, who leaves Teesside next month , is attending sixth form at Stokesley School, where he is studying maths, physics and biology.

He hopes his story will encourage other families to volunteer.

"I have enjoyed myself so much," he said: "They say when you leave you feel ten years more mature. I feel 20 years more mature.

"I want other people like me to taste that and give them the same opportunity."

Olgu explained: "I like my college and in England studies are very good - I like my lessons and I can specialise.

"I like the people in the area, they are friendly, and in college I have made a lot of friends. Since the first day they have tried to help me, and I have been to Boro matches."

Olgu now calls himself a Boro fan and among the highlights of life on Teesside was the 4-3 comeback in the UEFA Cup semi-final against Steua Bucharest.

He has met some of the players and had his photograph taken with them.

He said: "I like football and I have become a Boro fan. When Boro played in the final my friends texted me from Turkey and said they were very sorry the Boro had lost."

Olgu has also travelled around the UK, visiting Devon, Hexham, Newcastle, Glasgow, and particularly likes Whitby and Robin's Hood Bay. He also went on a trip to Paris with school.

He said: "I like the countryside here, it's very green. I like curries and Yorkshire pudding but I don't like the English weather."

Olgu recently came fourth in an essay writing competition organised by AFS for students staying with families in the UK. His essay, called The Planet Where Tea Is Drunk With Milk, tells of how much he has learnt of British culture.

Olgu is going to go back to Turkey to complete his studies but is hoping to return to England to go to university.

Sue and Alan Hartley decided to take a student into their home after reading an AFS appeal for host families in the Evening Gazette last year.